Ethics of sex equality: A case of women deprivation in education and employment in India

Equal opportunities in education and employment will constitute the basic strategy for management of gender diversity. Till very late, women are biased against in both these fields and hence they are left far behind their male counterparts in all fields of modern life. Women did not have their due share in the major fields of human activity, i.e., social, economic and political. Lack of equal access to education deprived their due share in science and technological fields as well. Thus, the single factor i.e., lack of equal access in education deprived equal opportunities to women in all most all modern fields of human life.

Though women constitute about 50 per cent in the total population of the country, most of them are engaged as illiterate, untrained daily wage workers in the primary sectors like agriculture and its allied activities, construction, mining, petty trade etc. In the total labuor force, the women labuor constitute about 45.6 per cent in the rural sector and 20.9 per cent in the urban sector for the year 19992000. The share of women labour in the organized sector, which requires education, is miserably low at 14.94 per cent in the public sector and 24.16 per cent in the private sector in the year 2001. It is estimated that there are less than 30 female employees for every one lakh females in the public sector. The rate of female Absorption though appears slightly higher in the organized private sector still; it was less than 50 females for every one lakh females in the county as on 31^st march, 2002.

Even the rate of growth of women employment over the last 6 years i.e., 1993–94 to 1999–2000 is not encouraging at all. At the over all level, it is less than one per cent while, the employment growth rate stood at 0.8 per cent in rural India and 1.5 per cent in urban India.

The deprivation of women in the economic sector has its reflection in the political sector as well. There are only 44 women M.Ps in the present Lok Sabha who constitute only 8.16 per cent in the total strength of 539.

Thus, it is understood that the women in India are not provided equal opportunities for a better living. The root cause for this one sided management of human affairs could be pinned to lack of equal access in education and employment. It appears that there is a historical deprivation for women in education. The ills of today have their roots in the educational history of India, over the centuries.

In this paper we wish to examine the historical deprivation of women both as the school going children as well as teachers at the school education level.

The specific objectives of this paper are:

To estimate disparity index between male and female literacy rates for the last 100 years i.e.; from 1901–2001.

To estimate the growth of enrollment of girls vis-à-vis boys in primary, upper primary and secondary education in India for the last 50 years i.e. from 1950–51 to 1999–2000, and

To examine the increase in the number of women teachers employed in primary schools, upper primary schools and high schools for the last 50 years i.e. from 1950–51 to 1999–2000.

From the above analysis it may be concluded that India started at a very low note in respect of female education in the beginning of the century. Education appeared to be almost the male affair and hence they had grabbed all the employment opportunities, all through the ages.

The situation started changing with achieving political independence for the country. The female literacy received a boost particularly from 1961 on wards and along with that female employment in the schools had also received a boost.

With the launching of several literacy missions like National Adult Education Programme (NAEP-1978), National Literacy Mission (NLM-1988), Total Literacy Campaigns (TLCs-1989) and Jan Shikshan Nilayams (NSNs-1993), the momentum picked up in both these fields, i.e. education and employment.

However, as noted in our introductory part, the women lag far behind their male counter parts in all major fields i.e. social, economic and political. Unless new strategies are evolved out for management of gender diversity the progress of women in India will be retarded for some more decades to come.